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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






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GEN. MMAHOFS OPINIONS 



IN REGARD TO 



THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 



A FEW REMARKS IN ANSWER TO HIS 
ASSERTIONS. 




The declaration of General McMahon before the Congres- 
sional Committee charged with the investigation of certain 
events lately occurred in Paraguay, in which several officers 
and representatives of the United States have been more or less 
complicated, a detailed notice of which appeared in the "New 
York Evening Mail" of the 4th instant, shows evidently that 
the General completely ignores the history and geography of 
those countries, as well as the most elemental antecedents of 
the questions at issue ; an ignorance that is the cause of his 
falling into great errors every time that he attempts to judge of 
the alliance, the war, its causes, and of Lopez himself. 

We confess that we expected something more serious from a 
person of the intelligence of General McMahon, and who has 
lived so near the theatre of events ; but it happens sometimes; 
that objects are but badly seen when the observer places him 
self too near them. This excuse the General may claim to 
justify his ignorance of the questions he attemps to explain. 
We may add to this that Lopez having been defeated in every 
battle ever since the arrival of the General in Paraguay, he 
must have had little time to give his guest and confidant better 
information; and that the latter, who followed Lopez in his 



hasty retreats, must have lacked the means and opportunity of 
consulting historical documents, or of becoming acquainted with 
anything else except what the Dictator deemed it proper to 
communicate to him. It is only thus that we are able to under- 
stand how General McMahon can mention "the control of the 
River Plate " as the principal cause of the war, and that he 
should subsequently say that in his invasion of Brazilian and 
Argentine territories Lopez observed the law of nations. 

To the first of these assertions, we answer that the Para- 
guayan Dictator never alleged this cause to justify his conduct, 
nor did he ever complain of it in his numerous documents 
relating to the war. The Argentine government did not dream 
of opposing the free navigation of the River Plate and its 
affluents, a freedom guaranteed by treaties siuce 1853, and since 
then enjoyed by all nations. Lopez, on the contrary,, did not 
go further than to speak of subscribing to what had been done 
by the Argentine Republic, as is proved by the cases of the 
Water Witch, Yermejo river exploration, and the erection of 
the fortress of Humaita, at the entrance of his fluvial dominions. 
We challenge General McMahon to prove the contrary. 

In regard to the second assertion — that which states that 
Lopez did not violate the law of nations — we refer the reader 
to a dispatch of Mr. Edward Thornton to Lord Russell, dated 
April 24, 1866, in which he calls barbarous Lopez's attack on 
Corrientes. — (Correspondence respecting hostilities in the River 
Plate, part III.) Everybody knows that without a previous 
declaration of war the Argentine Province was invaded by a 
strong army of Paraguaj^ans, and that two meu-of-war were 
captured while lying at anchor, to the great surprise of their 
commanders, who, knowing their country to be at peace with 
all the world, had not even taken the precaution of having 
steam ready. 

Rear Admiral Elliot informed the English Admiralty of 
Lopez's invasion in the following terms : " The news of this 
outrage of President Lopez produced a great excitement in 
Buenos Ayres, whose Government had remained neutral, after 
successfully resisting the temptations of those who wished to 
involve it in the war." — (Dispatch of April 26. 1866.) 



The same Mr Thornton, in a, communication bearing date 
May 6, 1866, ridicules the pretexts alleged by Lopez to invade 
the Argentine Republic. General MeMahon, however, does 
not fear to invoke the authority of Mr. Thornton to prove the 
contrary. 

Let us follow the General in his defence of Lopez, and see 
how he proves that the Dictator did not violate the law of 
nations. 

He begins with a history, more or less mistaken, of the Uru- 
guayan revolution and the alliance between General Flores and 
Brazil, denying that the Argentine Government had remained 
neutral in that question, and affirming that a secret plot existed 
between Brazil and the Argentine Republic to destroy the 
Paraguayan nationality. These assertions, good General Me- 
Mahon informs us, were communicated to him by Lopez him- 
self! We cannot help admiring this credulity, for it betrays a 
candor seldom found among diplomats. 

How explain, without neutrality, the efforts of the Argentine 
Government, made in union with the British Minister, in order 
to bring to an end the Uruguayan civil war through a peaceful 
mediation? If Brazil and the Argentine Republic were 
secretly united against Paraguay, why did the Argentine Gov- 
ernment deny to the Brazilians the right to pass with their 
troops through its territory ? Where is to be found, we shall 
not say the proof, but the least indication of the existence of 
such agreement before the invasion of Corrientes and the 
treaty of alliance ? We leave to General MeMahon the task of 
answering these questions ; but we most respectfully beg him 
not to tell us what Lopez said to him, nor to go to search for 
his proofs among the specious pretexts alleged by the Dictator 
to disguise the suspicious movements of his troops on the fron- 
tier of the Argentine Republic, previous to his invading it. 

In a communication dated Februaay 9, 1866, the Argentine 
Government demanded an explanation of those movements, and 
made known its opinion in regard to the permission asked by 
the Paraguayan Government in order to cross with its troops 
through Argentine territory. It said : " His Excellency the 



President of the Argentine Republic, who has seen with the 
utmost regret the breaking out of a war between two friendly 
and neighboring Governments as are those of Brazil and Para- 
guay, has decided upon observing the most strict neutrality. 
* * * In accordance with this principle it will 

respect the legitimate rights of the belligerents, etc." In the 
same dispatch, referring to its refusal to allow the passage of 
troops, it said : " The permission asked would therefore involve 
all the inconveniences that justify our refusal according to the 
doctrines and constant practice of all civilized peoples. Indeed, 
the permission once given to Paraguay, the same would have 
to be done with Brazil, and as a consequence, the neutral Ar- 
gentine territory would become the seat of war." — (Note of 
Minister Elizalcle to Minister Berges.) To a similar request 
made by Brazil a similar answer was given, showing in this, 
as in many other instances, how firmly resolved the Argentine 
Government was to remain strictly neutral in the struggle. 

Asked if it is a question of life or death for the Paraguayans 
to resist the alliance to the last, General McMahon makes in 
his answer the most terrible mistakes. He says that he believes 
so, and to sustain his opinion he mentions the fact that the 
city of Corrientes, which he places in the Province of Entre- 
rios, (as if we should say that Philadelphia is in the State of 
New York,) was the headquarters of Brazil during its war 
with Uruguay. On reading this we can scarcely believe our 
eyes. How could Brazil make its headquarters at Corrientes 
in order to invade Uruguay ? Does General McMahon ignore 
that Brazil and Uruguay border each other in the frontier ? 
Is he not aware of the fact that Corrientes is about nine 
hundred miles distant from the mouth of the River Plate, and 
consequently about nine hundred miles a way from the natural 
water route between Brazil and Uruguay, two hundred miles 
by land of the Brazilian frontier, and about three hundred from 
that of Uruguay? Such is, however, the assertion of General 
McMahon, according to the geographical notions acquired by 
him in his conversations with Lopez 1 

General McMahon goes on making such a confusion of facts, 
circumstances, dates and places, that we are obliged to stop 



following him for a while in order to make a brief history of 
the alliance and its causes. 

The Paraguayan Government, that since the times of Dr. 
Francia had been a military despotism, felt the necessity of 
extending its inland territory, it being geographically dependent 
on the Argentine Republic for its communication with the out- 
side world. The province of Corrientes was the most coveted, 
on account of its being nearest to Paraguay, and by the facili- 
ties that it would afford for the further acquisition of Entrerios. 
Once in possession of these provinces, Paraguay would have 
settled the question of a direct communication with the ocean. 

The intervention of Brazil in Uruguay served as a pretext 
for Lopez to carry out his father's plans, and with that object 
in view he sided against the Empire, invoking the equilibrium 
of the river Plate as his reason for thus acting It was then 
that he and Brazil asked from the Argentine Government the 
permission to pass with their troops, and that this was denied 
to both. 

Nothing else occurred to justify the invasion of Corrientes, 
and it was thus that the Argentine Republic was obliged to 
give up its neutral policy and to make an alliance with Brazil 
and Uruguay against the invader. We have before us the 
dispatches exchanged between the Argentine and Paraguayan 
Governments, and we find nothing in regard to the supposed 
secret alliance against Paraguay. We advise General Mc- 
Mahon to read those documents, as well as many others con- 
cerning the war, which are of public notoriety, as we are quite 
sure that after reading them he will no longer trust the tyrant 
who has dared to make of him little less than a plaything. 

According to General McMahon, and the information given 
to him by Lopez, (he does not mention any other,) the Dictator 
of Paraguay declared war to the Argentine Republic before 
attacking it, but the Argentine President kept the declaration 
a secret, with the view of making the aggression still more 
odious. But, how or when was that declaration made ? How 
did it happen that the entire Argentine people, Mr. Thornton, 
Admiral Elliott, and in fact the whole world, never became 
aware, nor even suspected, the existence of that document ? 



6 

Let General McMahon answer these questions, but without re- 
lying on what Lopez told him. The General's account of the 
Treaty of Alliance is not only unjust, but in open hostility with 
historical truth. Let him prove, if he can, that a free govern- 
ment has not been establi hed in Paraguay, elected Dy the peo- 
ple, and composed of men who, until a year ago, were fighting 
in Lopez's army. The allies have made war against the Lopez 
dynasty, and not the Paraguayan people. This has been inva- 
riably stated in all public docu uents, and the brotherly affec- 
tion with which the Paraguayan prisoners and refugees have 
been treated, together with the establishment of a free govern- 
ment in Asuncion, do not leave a shadow of doubt, about the 
honesty of their intentions. The exclusion of Lopez is ba^ed 
upon the fact that he does not offer any guarantee for the 
observance of treaties of any kind. No nation in similar cir- 
cumstances, 'seeing that its free institutions were continually 
threatened by an irresponsible tyrant, and af er the unprovoked 
invasion, plunder and desolation of a large portion of its terri 
tory, would have acted differently. Peace with Lopez would 
be only an armistice during which be would be on the lookout 
for new pretexts for the consummation of his ambitious plans 
of conquest 

The Argentine Republic is more in'erested than any body 
else in the existence of a liberal Government in Paraguay. 
With Lopez such a Government was impossible, as he could not 
even accept the idea of it without committiug political suicide,. 
It was because the allies knew it tha f they prom sed not to lay 
down their arms until they had put an end to the dynasty of 
Lopez and their absolute rule in Paraguay. If the allies erred in 
this a thousand times morcerred those whocousidered dangerous 
the establishment of the Mexican empire, the victory of South- 
ern aristocracy, and a protectorate in Texas If ever General 
McMahon reads any thing about Paraguayan history, we doubt 
not that the color will mount to his cheeks every time that he 
thinks of the time when he made himself the advocate of the 
tyrants of that most unfortunate country 

Has General McMahon or anybody else ever noticed any 
thing like republican institutions ir Paraguay ? Does there 



exist any national representation ? Is the power of the execu- 
tive in any way restricted in that country ? Is it not true that 
the people call Lopez the supreme, i. e. the master, the sover- 
eign ? During his residence in Paraguay, did the General 
become aware of the existence of a judicial power, of guaran- 
tees of any kind, liberty of the press, of reunion, of worship, in 
fact of any thing ? No, he surely never heard of the Para- 
guayan enjoying any of those precious rights of a free people. 
Paraguay was a convent under the rule of the Jesuits ; it is a 
barrack under the despotism of Lopez. 

We advise General* McMahon to read the so-called constitu- 
tion of Paraguay, which he will find in the library of the State 
Department He will by so doing gain a good deal of useful 
information. But the public has as good a right as General 
McMahon to know a little about that constitution, and we 
quote below the opinion of a noted supporter of Lopez, the 
well-known author of the many pamphlets in defence of the 
Paraguayan despot, published during the war, and distributed 
all over Europe and America. We need not say that at the 
time that Mr. Alberdi wrote this, he had not yet been won by 
Lopez : 

"The constitution of Paraguay is the constitution of dicta- 
torship, of the all-powerful presidency as a permanent institu- 
tion. The dictatorship of Dr. Francia was not the best prepa- 
ratory school for the representative republican system. It was 
thought that the new constitution would contain some liberal 
reforms, but this was not the case. It is more than the first. 
The dictatorship is hidden behind a constitutional mask. 

" Article one consecrates the liberal principle of the division of 
the different powers, declaring asan exclusive attribution of Con- 
gress the law-making power. But this amounts to nothing; when 
reading article five, we find that the authority of the President 
of the Republic is extraordinary whenever (according to his 
own judgment) public order should require it. The President 
is the exclusive judge of all the important legal cases (causas, 
reservadas.) He raises armies, creates naval forces, and dis- 
poses of them without responsibility of any kind. He concludes 
treaties with the same irresponsibility. He appoints and 



8 

removes the employees at his own will. He opens commercial 
ports He has unrestricted control over the post, the roads, 
the education of the people, the finances and the police, without 
having to consult anybody nor wait for any approbation. He 
is the embodiment of all the other powers of the executive, with 
none of its responsibilities. His term lasts ten years, (Para- 
guay has had but three rulers during the last sixty years,) 
during which Congress meets only twice. The ordinary ses- 
sions take place every five years." 

Thus speaks Dr. Alberdi of the model constitution of Para- 
guay, and if Lopez admirers do not believe Alberdi, we don't 
know whom they will believe. No man has ferved Lopez so 
well, be it writing pamphlets and articles for the press or giv- 
ing advice to the agents of the tyrant in Europe. Now, after 
this, does General McMahon, the soldier of a free nation, the 
citizen of the Great American Republic, beUeve that freeiom 
can prosper under such a constitution ? Can the ruler of a 
people thus constituted be the champion of the republican prin- 
ciple ? And against whom ? Against the Argentine Repub- 
lic, whose constitution, whose laws and even whose school 
teachers are imported from the United States ? Against the 
Argentine Republic, that has fought for its freedom and that of 
its neighbors, shedding the blood of its best sous to make their 
sister republics independent ? The Argentine Republic, that 
went to war with Brazil when it showed signs of attempting to 
annex a neighboring republic, (Uruguay) and did not lay 
down its arms until the Empire was forced to give up its ambi- 
tious plans? Oh, General McMahon! there are things that 
cannot be said with impunity ! If you ever again go to the 
River Plate, try to be only just, and you will render a great 
service to humanity and to yourself if you have the courage of 
retracting your words of to-day. Mutual accusation, inquisi- 
torial system, these are the institutions of Paraguay. In 
Lopez's hands are the life, the fortune and the honor of the 
families, and he gives the example of immorality, living pub- 
licly in concubinage with a married woman. The assertions to 
the contrary of General McMahon are nothing against what 
has been said by so many travelers and diplomats, such as 



9 

Captain Page, Beck Bernard, Arcos, and Rev. Dr. Eizaguirre 
among the first; Thornton, Cerrutti and Washburn among the 
last. The declarations of all the Paraguayan officers taken 
during the war by the allies, all of which have been published, 
do not leave a shadow of doubt about the truth of what we 
have said, and they tell a tale quite different from that of Gene- 
ral McMahon. 

Treating of the preparations of Paraguay for the war, Gene- 
ral McMahon states, that according to what Lopez told him, 
he was but poorly prepared for it, having armed his troops 
with the arms captured from the allies at Corrientes. This 
scarcely needs any refutation, and we shall confine ourselves to 
give a few extracts of declarations made by some of the prin- 
cipal officers of Lopez's army, who have fallen into the hands 
of the allies. Captain Adolfo Saguier says: "At the begin- 
ning of the war the Paraguayan army counted fifty thousand 
men in the three branches of the service, all of the line, and 
good men, well drilled and passably organized." Lieutenant 
Colonel Lucas Carrillo, who commanded at Augostura, says: 
"The army at the beginning of the war was composed of fifty- 
six thousand men, those in the navy included. We had a 
battery of six rifled guns, and some three hundred guns of other 
descriptions, among them one of the calibre known as one 
hundred and fifty and another of one hundred and twenty." 
Colonel Francisco Martinez, Chief of Humaita, says: "That 
when the war began, the Paraguayan army had from fifty to 
sixtv thousand men in its ranks " 

Now, the population of Paraguay never exceeded 800,000 ; 
we leave to the reader to decide whether or not the Dictator was 
prepared for war. -In regard to arms, Lopez never made a 
secret of his enormous purchase in Europe of warlike mate- 
rials. Exerybody knows besides, and we could give theinaines 
of some of them, that Lopez had secured in Europe the services 
of many engineers, surgeons and officers for the army and navy, 
long before the war broke out. That story about Lopez 
arming his men at Corrientes, and the several battle-fields, can 
be only taken as a joke, for not only was there never a deposit 
of arms there previous to the war, but at the time of its capture 



</ 



10 

by the Paraguayans not a company of soldiers was there to 
garrison the place He could not have taken them in any 
battle-field, for he never was master of any. Curupaity has 
been the only victory gained by Lopez during the war, and 
that was not a battle, but an unsuccessful attack upon very 
strong entrenchments, in which the allies retired in good order, 
not a single man of the enemy daring to come out after the 
repulse. When the story of Lopez armament reaches the 
shores of the River Plate, the general exclamation will be : 
Risum teneatis ! 

The Paraguayan troops seen by General McMahon are all 
that is left of a people sacrificed to the ambition of a cruel 
despot, and not the powerful army on which Lopez depended 
for the execution of his ambitious plans. Those poor, wretched 
fellows that surround the tyrant to-day, and who do not dare 
leave him, because they still fear him, are not those strong 
sixty thousand men with which he attempted the conquest of 
the republics of the River Plate, to found in them the second 
South American Empire. And a most glorious Empire it would 
have been, with Indians and white and black slaves as subjects, 
and Lopez as Emperor ! Did General McMahon pay a visit 
to the Public Museum of Buenos Ayres during his stay in that 
city ? It would be a pity if he had not, because there he would 
have learned a good lesson while looking at the splendid crown 
that was to have covered Lopez's head, and is now one of the 
most beautiful attractions of that rich institution. 

The manner in which Geneial McMahon tries to excuse the 
^ crimes of Lopez is surprising for the innocence that it betrays. 
Speaking of the six hundred persons killed by order of the dic- 
tator, and whose names are put down in the papers lately taken 
by the allies, he says that Lopez having had one hundred and 
twenty thousand men under his command, he cannot be blamed 
for the execution of that number during the four years of the 
war, and for the crime of desertion. But does General McMa- 
hon ignore that those six hundred names represent all tbat 
was most respectable in Paraguay? Does he ignore that simi- 
lar documents containing the names of over two thousand 
victims have been found at Curupaity, Lomas, Valentinas, and 



11 

other encampments ? The journal of the Paraguayan General 
Resquin, which the General seems to have coDSulted but not 
understood, shows that from the first of May until the four- 
teenth of December, (eight months, and not four years,) six 
hundred and five persons were executed ; their names, employ- 
ment, nationality, and kind of death being there specified. If 
General Resquin is not a good authority on the matter we 
doubt whether there can be found a better one. Certainly not 
General McMahon. 

General McMahon has not read the list of the victims, because 
if he had he would have seen that few of them could have been, 
we shall not say convicted, but not even accused of the crime 
of desertion. Indeed, was there any probability of being 
deserters, the Charge d'Affairs of Uruguay, ex- Minister Car- 
reras, the Uruguayan Consul, the Charge d'Affaires of Bolivia, 
the Portuguese Consul, Mr. Leite Pereira, and the Vice Consul 
of the same nation, the Judges Garcete, Ortiz, Basaras, Ojeda, 
Pelara, Nunez, Burgos, Durante and Peres, the commanders of 
Ita, Yaguaron, Paraguari, Oapegua, Ibitimi, Villa Rica, Casa- 
apa, Yuti, Villa del Kosario, Villa de San Pedro, and two of 
the capital ; the custom officers Bedoya, Gonzales, Ibarra, Mil- 
leres, Urbieta, Molinas, Lion, Uandia, and many others ? How 
could have been deserters the bishop, the presbyters Bogado, 
Corbalan, Servin, Arce, Basan, Baldovino, Barrrios, Falavera, 
Patino, Rodriguez, Narvaez, Benitez, Salduondo, and the ladies 
Maria I. De Eguzquiza, Dolores Recalde, and Juliana N. de 
Martinez, all of them killed or tortured by the tyrant ? 

All these crimes and many others weigh upon the head of 
Lopez, and nothing can blot out the innocent blood with which 
his hands are stained. Master of the destinies of a people 
whose happiness it would have been exceedingly easy for him 
to accomplish, he has sacrificed it to his ambition, and has mar- 
tyrized and ruined it. In his thirst for blood he invented a 
conspiracy against himself, in which he complicated his own 
mother, the American Minister, and all the members of his Le- 
gation, almost all the foreign consuls, his brother Benigno, his 
brother-in-law, General Barrios, Mr. Bedoya, Secretary of the 
Treasury, the Bishop, the Secretary of State, Mr. Berjes, and 
hundreds of other persons belonging to the most distinguished 
class in Paraguay. All of these Lopez accused of treason, and 
all, with tne exception of xVlinister Washburn, were incarcerated 
and tortured. Does General McMahon know how many of 
these persons are living at present? He ought to know, and 
we will thank him for their names, as we do not know of any 
others besides Lopez's mother, Mr. Bliss, and Mr. Masterman. 

One word more in regard to this supposed conspiracy Did 
it really exist, or was it only an invention of Lopez ? If the 



12 

first, we must confess that the fact that among the conspirators 
were his mother and brothers, the men in whom he had most 
confidence, the clergy, and almost all the members of the diplo- 
matic and consular corps, speaks very highly as to the char- 
acter of the dictator ; if the second was the case, well, then, 
every one must acknowledge that Lopez has been the murderer 
of six hundred innocent persons. Has Gen. McMahon any- 
thing to answer to this ? 

In spite of the self-confidence with which the General gives 
his opinions in regard to Lopez, the war, etc , it seems as if 
his conscience were not very quiet. "I am afraid," he says, 
"our Minister to the Argentine Republic, Mr. Kirk, has so far 
forgotten himself as to assist in the effort to ruin my credit 
with my Government, which began there and has followed me 
here. Why that fear of General McMahon ? We cannot 
explain it otherwise than by the fact that Mr. Kirk having 
resided five } T ears in the River Plate, and being well posted in 
the affairs of those countries, he may write to his Government 
some truths that will not meet with the approbation of the 
General. We beg the General's pardon if we are mistaken, but 
we cannot, as we have said before, find another explanation for 
his fears as to what Mr. Kirk will say in the future. 

We finish our task, hoping that our statements will throw 
some light on this Paraguayan question. We thought that the 
word of somebody who knew the truth about those countries 
and their questions, and who could give reliable proof in sup- 
port of his assertions, would be of great weight in the contro- 
versy. Whether we have succeeded, the reader and General 
McMahon will judge for themselves. If more proofs and docu- 
ments are needed, we are ready to furnish them at any time, 
and we hope then as well as now our assertions will weigh 
more than the unfounded and arbitrary statements of Lopez's 
admirers, who are trying hard to excite the feelings of the 
American nation against peoples whose history is but imper- 
fectly known. Their malicious efforts to deceive public opin- 
ion, representing the war as between monarchy and republican- 
ism, (omitting of course the fact that Paraguay is a republic 
only in name, and that the two allied republics are more inter- 
ested in the freedom of Paraguay than the admirers of Lopez,) 
will at the end be unsuccessful. A day will come when Gene- 
ral McMahon and those who sympathize with his ideas will 
reflect upon the responsibility they have assumed in giving 
their moral support to the cause of despotism on the River 
Plate, and upon the great mistake they made when they be- 
lieved in Lopez's honesty, and that he was fighting for the 
cause of republicanism. 



